Spot iron ore remained range bound for the week

Iron ore remained range bound in the week as the prices sea sawed around $67/dmt mark. Prices gained some momentum towards the latter half due to expectations of tighter supply as China’s anti-pollution campaign restricts supply.

Looking at the benchmark for seaborne spot iron ore prices, Platts assessed the 62% Fe IODEX & TSI Iron Ore Fines at $67.50/dmt CFR North China on Friday. Meanwhile, TSI 58% Fe Fines, 1.5% Al, CFR Qingdao port closed the week at $57.50/dmt.

Futures Market

Onto the futures, the most active steel rebar contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange closed up 3.9% at Yuan 4,301/mt.

Most actively traded coke for January delivery on the Dalian Commodity Exchange rose as much as 7.8% to Yuan 2,720.50/mt ($395/mt), before closing up 6.5% at Yuan 2,689/mt.

Further at Dalian Commodity Exchange, the most active iron ore contract jumped 1.6% to Yuan 504.50/mt, recovering from initial losses. Coking coal contract rose 2.5% to settle at Yuan 1,291.50/mt, having touched a two-month high of Yuan 1,326.50/mt earlier.